[30394] in Perl-Users-Digest
Perl-Users Digest, Issue: 1637 Volume: 11
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Perl-Users Digest)
Fri Jun 13 06:09:40 2008
Date: Fri, 13 Jun 2008 03:09:05 -0700 (PDT)
From: Perl-Users Digest <Perl-Users-Request@ruby.OCE.ORST.EDU>
To: Perl-Users@ruby.OCE.ORST.EDU (Perl-Users Digest)
Perl-Users Digest Fri, 13 Jun 2008 Volume: 11 Number: 1637
Today's topics:
calling external program tiff2pdf <john1949@yahoo.com>
Re: How Does One Implement a Timer in Perl? <BLOCKSPAMfishfry@your-mailbox.com>
Re: Learning Perl <benkasminbullock@gmail.com>
new CPAN modules on Fri Jun 13 2008 (Randal Schwartz)
Re: Perl on embedded device <hjp-usenet2@hjp.at>
Posting Guidelines for comp.lang.perl.misc ($Revision: tadmc@seesig.invalid
Re: Reading a line from a CVS file into an array. <colin@yoursupport.biz>
Unwanted output using croak with eval <BLOCKSPAMfishfry@your-mailbox.com>
Re: Unwanted output using croak with eval <ramesh.thangamani@gmail.com>
Re: Unwanted output using croak with eval <bugbear@trim_papermule.co.uk_trim>
Digest Administrivia (Last modified: 6 Apr 01) (Perl-Users-Digest Admin)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 13 Jun 2008 10:05:18 +0100
From: "John" <john1949@yahoo.com>
Subject: calling external program tiff2pdf
Message-Id: <g2td8d$bs7$1@news.albasani.net>
Hi
Part of program
my $filename="fred.tiff";
my $newfile="john.pdf";
system ("tiff2pdf -o $newfile $filename");
There is no conversion.
I've tried "./tiff2pdf" also.
Any ideas?
John
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2008 22:37:14 -0700
From: fishfry <BLOCKSPAMfishfry@your-mailbox.com>
Subject: Re: How Does One Implement a Timer in Perl?
Message-Id: <BLOCKSPAMfishfry-04BDCF.22371412062008@comcast.dca.giganews.com>
In article <1194371465.172543.212450@e9g2000prf.googlegroups.com>,
kvnsmnsn@hotmail.com wrote:
> I need to write a Perl script for one server that sends off messages
> on a socket and then waits for a response. If a response comes in
> five seconds, it uses that response for its output. If a response
> _doesn't_ come in five seconds, it uses another algorithm to generate
> its output.
>
> Is there a way in Perl to do this, to suspend execution until five
> seconds have past or until a response has come, whichever happens
> first? Any feedback on this would be greatly appreciated.
>
> ---Kevin Simonson
>
> "You'll never get to heaven, or even to LA,
> if you don't believe there's a way."
> from _Why Not_
If you're on a *nix-like system (linux, MacOS, Solaris, etc.) you can
use signals. I don't know if those work on other platforms. The idea is
that you write a function called a signal handler. Then you set a timer.
When the timer pops, control transfers to your signal handler.
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 13 Jun 2008 09:08:39 +0000 (UTC)
From: Ben Bullock <benkasminbullock@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Learning Perl
Message-Id: <g2tden$gvp$1@ml.accsnet.ne.jp>
On Thu, 12 Jun 2008 09:52:52 -0700, Elizabeth Barnwell wrote:
> Here is a set of flashcards our developers have been using to learn
> Perl with very good results:
>
> http://www.yoyobrain.com/subjects/show/3121
>
> Add the subject to your study materials, click on try a learning
> drill.
That looks very useful.
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 13 Jun 2008 04:42:19 GMT
From: merlyn@stonehenge.com (Randal Schwartz)
Subject: new CPAN modules on Fri Jun 13 2008
Message-Id: <K2Dx2J.LJr@zorch.sf-bay.org>
The following modules have recently been added to or updated in the
Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN). You can install them using the
instructions in the 'perlmodinstall' page included with your Perl
distribution.
Acme-Kensiro-0.06
http://search.cpan.org/~tokuhirom/Acme-Kensiro-0.06/
kensiro-sinsu
----
AnyEvent-HTTP-1.02
http://search.cpan.org/~mlehmann/AnyEvent-HTTP-1.02/
simple but non-blocking HTTP/HTTPS client
----
CPAN-Testers-ParseReport-0.0.1
http://search.cpan.org/~andk/CPAN-Testers-ParseReport-0.0.1/
parse reports to cpantesters.perl.org from various sources
----
CatalystX-CRUD-0.27
http://search.cpan.org/~karman/CatalystX-CRUD-0.27/
CRUD framework for Catalyst applications
----
CatalystX-CRUD-Controller-RHTMLO-0.12
http://search.cpan.org/~karman/CatalystX-CRUD-Controller-RHTMLO-0.12/
Rose::HTML::Objects CRUD controller
----
CatalystX-CRUD-Model-RDBO-0.12
http://search.cpan.org/~karman/CatalystX-CRUD-Model-RDBO-0.12/
Rose::DB::Object CRUD
----
Class-MOP-0.59
http://search.cpan.org/~sartak/Class-MOP-0.59/
A Meta Object Protocol for Perl 5
----
Class-MOP-0.60
http://search.cpan.org/~sartak/Class-MOP-0.60/
A Meta Object Protocol for Perl 5
----
Config-LotusNotes-0.32
http://search.cpan.org/~albers/Config-LotusNotes-0.32/
Access Lotus Notes/Domino configuration
----
DBD-Mock-1.37
http://search.cpan.org/~drolsky/DBD-Mock-1.37/
Mock database driver for testing
----
DBD-Pg-2.8.1
http://search.cpan.org/~turnstep/DBD-Pg-2.8.1/
PostgreSQL database driver for the DBI module
----
DBIx-Class-FrozenColumns-0.04
http://search.cpan.org/~syber/DBIx-Class-FrozenColumns-0.04/
Store virtual columns inside another column.
----
DBIx-Class-RandomStringColumns-0.06
http://search.cpan.org/~mikihoshi/DBIx-Class-RandomStringColumns-0.06/
Implicit random string columns
----
DBIx-Connection-0.07
http://search.cpan.org/~adrianwit/DBIx-Connection-0.07/
Simple database interface.
----
Data-NDS-1.04
http://search.cpan.org/~sbeck/Data-NDS-1.04/
routines to work with a perl nested data structure
----
Data-NDS-Multisource-2.01
http://search.cpan.org/~sbeck/Data-NDS-Multisource-2.01/
Data structures defined in multiple sources
----
Data-Pairs-0.07
http://search.cpan.org/~bbaxter/Data-Pairs-0.07/
Perl module to implement ordered mappings with possibly duplicate keys.
----
DateTime-Format-Natural-0.71
http://search.cpan.org/~schubiger/DateTime-Format-Natural-0.71/
Create machine readable date/time with natural parsing logic
----
Devel-Fail-Make-1.015
http://search.cpan.org/~mthurn/Devel-Fail-Make-1.015/
a distro that always fails the `make` stage
----
Devel-Fail-MakeTest-1.012
http://search.cpan.org/~mthurn/Devel-Fail-MakeTest-1.012/
a distro that always fails the `make test` stage
----
Devel-Fail-MakefilePL-1.013
http://search.cpan.org/~mthurn/Devel-Fail-MakefilePL-1.013/
a distro that always fails the `perl Makefile.PL` stage
----
Enbugger-2.001
http://search.cpan.org/~whitepage/Enbugger-2.001/
Enables the debugger at runtime.
----
Enbugger-2.002
http://search.cpan.org/~whitepage/Enbugger-2.002/
Enables the debugger at runtime.
----
Enbugger-Restarts-0.01_01
http://search.cpan.org/~whitepage/Enbugger-Restarts-0.01_01/
Reach around in your stack and restart execution from arbitrary places
----
FCGI-Async-0.14
http://search.cpan.org/~pevans/FCGI-Async-0.14/
Module to allow use of FastCGI asynchronously
----
File-Assets-0.060_6
http://search.cpan.org/~rkrimen/File-Assets-0.060_6/
Manage .css and .js assets in a web application
----
File-Copy-Link-0.112
http://search.cpan.org/~rmbarker/File-Copy-Link-0.112/
Perl extension for replacing a link by a copy of the linked file.
----
File-PathInfo-Ext-1.23
http://search.cpan.org/~leocharre/File-PathInfo-Ext-1.23/
metadata files, renaming, some other things on top of PathInfo
----
Font-TTF-0.45
http://search.cpan.org/~mhosken/Font-TTF-0.45/
Perl module for TrueType Font hacking
----
Font-TTF-Scripts-0.11.1
http://search.cpan.org/~mhosken/Font-TTF-Scripts-0.11.1/
Smart font script supporting modules and scripts for TTF/OTF
----
Geo-GML-0.11
http://search.cpan.org/~markov/Geo-GML-0.11/
Geography Markup Language processing
----
Geo-ISO19139-0.10
http://search.cpan.org/~markov/Geo-ISO19139-0.10/
access iso-19139 structures
----
Gtk2-Sexy-0.03
http://search.cpan.org/~flora/Gtk2-Sexy-0.03/
Perl interface to the sexy widget collection
----
HTML-Entities-ConvertPictogramMobileJp-0.07
http://search.cpan.org/~tokuhirom/HTML-Entities-ConvertPictogramMobileJp-0.07/
convert pictogram entities
----
IO-Async-0.15
http://search.cpan.org/~pevans/IO-Async-0.15/
a collection of modules that implement asynchronous filehandle IO
----
Jemplate-0.23
http://search.cpan.org/~rkrimen/Jemplate-0.23/
JavaScript Templating with Template Toolkit
----
Lingua-Alphabet-Phonetic-NetHack-1.06
http://search.cpan.org/~mthurn/Lingua-Alphabet-Phonetic-NetHack-1.06/
map ASCII characters to names of NetHack items
----
Log-Log4perl-Layout-SimpleLayout-Multiline-0.02
http://search.cpan.org/~nuffin/Log-Log4perl-Layout-SimpleLayout-Multiline-0.02/
Handle multiple lines with the Log::Log4perl::Layout::SimpleLayout
----
Mail-SpamAssassin-3.2.5
http://search.cpan.org/~jmason/Mail-SpamAssassin-3.2.5/
Spam detector and markup engine
----
Moose-0.49
http://search.cpan.org/~sartak/Moose-0.49/
A postmodern object system for Perl 5
----
Moose-0.50
http://search.cpan.org/~sartak/Moose-0.50/
A postmodern object system for Perl 5
----
MooseX-Traits-0.03
http://search.cpan.org/~jrockway/MooseX-Traits-0.03/
automatically apply roles at object creation time
----
Mouse-0.03
http://search.cpan.org/~sartak/Mouse-0.03/
Moose minus the antlers
----
Net-DRI-0.90
http://search.cpan.org/~pmevzek/Net-DRI-0.90/
Interface to Domain Name Registries/Registrars/Resellers
----
OODoc-1.04
http://search.cpan.org/~markov/OODoc-1.04/
object oriented production of code related documentation
----
POE-Component-CPAN-Reporter-0.01_05
http://search.cpan.org/~bingos/POE-Component-CPAN-Reporter-0.01_05/
Bringing the power of POE to CPAN smoke testing.
----
POE-Component-IRC-5.80
http://search.cpan.org/~bingos/POE-Component-IRC-5.80/
a fully event-driven IRC client module.
----
POE-Component-Supervisor-0.02
http://search.cpan.org/~nuffin/POE-Component-Supervisor-0.02/
Erlang inspired babysitting
----
POE-Filter-Zlib-2.01
http://search.cpan.org/~bingos/POE-Filter-Zlib-2.01/
A POE filter wrapped around Compress::Zlib
----
PPM-Repositories-0.15
http://search.cpan.org/~jdb/PPM-Repositories-0.15/
List of Perl Package Manager repositories
----
Perl-Critic-1.086
http://search.cpan.org/~elliotjs/Perl-Critic-1.086/
Critique Perl source code for best-practices.
----
Rose-DBx-Garden-0.14
http://search.cpan.org/~karman/Rose-DBx-Garden-0.14/
bootstrap Rose::DB::Object and Rose::HTML::Form classes
----
SVN-Dump-0.04
http://search.cpan.org/~book/SVN-Dump-0.04/
A Perl interface to Subversion dumps
----
Sledge-Plugin-DI-0.0.2
http://search.cpan.org/~tokuhirom/Sledge-Plugin-DI-0.0.2/
dependency injection for Sledge
----
Sledge-Plugin-Stash-0.02
http://search.cpan.org/~tokuhirom/Sledge-Plugin-Stash-0.02/
sledge with lvalue.
----
Sledge-SessionManager-Auto-0.04
http://search.cpan.org/~mikihoshi/Sledge-SessionManager-Auto-0.04/
Sledge's session manger switcher
----
Sledge-Utils-0.0.3
http://search.cpan.org/~tokuhirom/Sledge-Utils-0.0.3/
utility functions for Sledge
----
Template-Plugin-Hatena-0.02
http://search.cpan.org/~naoya/Template-Plugin-Hatena-0.02/
TT plugin for Text::Hatena
----
Template-Plugin-MobileJPPictogram-0.02
http://search.cpan.org/~tokuhirom/Template-Plugin-MobileJPPictogram-0.02/
Japanese mobile phone's pictogram operator
----
Template-Plugin-Multisource-2.01
http://search.cpan.org/~sbeck/Template-Plugin-Multisource-2.01/
Interface to Data::NDS::Multisource operations
----
Template-Plugin-SumOf-0.02
http://search.cpan.org/~tokuhirom/Template-Plugin-SumOf-0.02/
calcurate the sum with VMETHODS.
----
Test-Aggregate-0.23
http://search.cpan.org/~ovid/Test-Aggregate-0.23/
Aggregate *.t tests to make them run faster.
----
Test-DBUnit-0.09
http://search.cpan.org/~adrianwit/Test-DBUnit-0.09/
Database test framework.
----
Test-Snippet-0.01
http://search.cpan.org/~tokuhirom/Test-Snippet-0.01/
doctest for perl
----
Test-WWW-Mechanize-Plugin-Jcode-0.03
http://search.cpan.org/~tokuhirom/Test-WWW-Mechanize-Plugin-Jcode-0.03/
add the charset test method to Test::WWW::Mechanize
----
Text-CSV-Unicode-0.111
http://search.cpan.org/~rmbarker/Text-CSV-Unicode-0.111/
comma-separated values manipulation routines with potentially wide character data
----
Thread-Cancel-1.09
http://search.cpan.org/~jdhedden/Thread-Cancel-1.09/
Cancel (i.e., kill) threads
----
Thread-Suspend-1.19
http://search.cpan.org/~jdhedden/Thread-Suspend-1.19/
Suspend and resume operations for threads
----
WWW-Mechanize-Plugin-FollowMetaRedirect-0.01
http://search.cpan.org/~ryochin/WWW-Mechanize-Plugin-FollowMetaRedirect-0.01/
Follows 'meta refresh' link
----
Win32-ASP-CGI-0.10
http://search.cpan.org/~burak/Win32-ASP-CGI-0.10/
A module for Classic ASP (PerlScript) Programming
----
Win32-Process-Info-1.012
http://search.cpan.org/~wyant/Win32-Process-Info-1.012/
Provide process information for Windows 32 systems.
----
XML-Compile-Cache-0.11
http://search.cpan.org/~markov/XML-Compile-Cache-0.11/
Cache compiled XML translators
----
autodie-1.10_01
http://search.cpan.org/~pjf/autodie-1.10_01/
Replace functions with ones that succeed or die with lexical scope
----
autodie-1.10_02
http://search.cpan.org/~pjf/autodie-1.10_02/
Replace functions with ones that succeed or die with lexical scope
----
autodie-1.10_03
http://search.cpan.org/~pjf/autodie-1.10_03/
Replace functions with ones that succeed or die with lexical scope
----
lib-0.58
http://search.cpan.org/~smueller/lib-0.58/
manipulate @INC at compile time
----
mobirc-1.00
http://search.cpan.org/~tokuhirom/mobirc-1.00/
modern IRC to HTTP gateway
If you're an author of one of these modules, please submit a detailed
announcement to comp.lang.perl.announce, and we'll pass it along.
This message was generated by a Perl program described in my Linux
Magazine column, which can be found on-line (along with more than
200 other freely available past column articles) at
http://www.stonehenge.com/merlyn/LinuxMag/col82.html
print "Just another Perl hacker," # the original
--
Randal L. Schwartz - Stonehenge Consulting Services, Inc. - +1 503 777 0095
<merlyn@stonehenge.com> <URL:http://www.stonehenge.com/merlyn/>
Smalltalk/Perl/Unix consulting, Technical writing, Comedy, etc. etc.
See http://methodsandmessages.vox.com/ for Smalltalk and Seaside discussion
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 13 Jun 2008 08:05:38 +0200
From: "Peter J. Holzer" <hjp-usenet2@hjp.at>
Subject: Re: Perl on embedded device
Message-Id: <slrng543hi.2gh.hjp-usenet2@hrunkner.hjp.at>
On 2008-06-10 21:45, Andrew Rich <vk4tec@people.net.au> wrote:
> I have always run perl on laptops and desktops.
>
> We are looking to make a little LINUX display.
>
> Which begs me to ask the question
>
> Does LINUX and PERL run on small embedded devices ?
Depends on what you mean by "small". When I was doing embedded work a
few years ago, we had 4 MB of flash - enough for a linux kernel, a
busybox shell and our application. I didn't even try to fit perl onto
that thing - even if I had succeeded, everybody would have considered
the space that the perl interpreter needed as wasted.
hp
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 13 Jun 2008 06:13:07 GMT
From: tadmc@seesig.invalid
Subject: Posting Guidelines for comp.lang.perl.misc ($Revision: 1.8 $)
Message-Id: <Tdo4k.1293$LG4.645@nlpi065.nbdc.sbc.com>
Outline
Before posting to comp.lang.perl.misc
Must
- Check the Perl Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
- Check the other standard Perl docs (*.pod)
Really Really Should
- Lurk for a while before posting
- Search a Usenet archive
If You Like
- Check Other Resources
Posting to comp.lang.perl.misc
Is there a better place to ask your question?
- Question should be about Perl, not about the application area
How to participate (post) in the clpmisc community
- Carefully choose the contents of your Subject header
- Use an effective followup style
- Speak Perl rather than English, when possible
- Ask perl to help you
- Do not re-type Perl code
- Provide enough information
- Do not provide too much information
- Do not post binaries, HTML, or MIME
Social faux pas to avoid
- Asking a Frequently Asked Question
- Asking a question easily answered by a cursory doc search
- Asking for emailed answers
- Beware of saying "doesn't work"
- Sending a "stealth" Cc copy
Be extra cautious when you get upset
- Count to ten before composing a followup when you are upset
- Count to ten after composing and before posting when you are upset
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Posting Guidelines for comp.lang.perl.misc ($Revision: 1.8 $)
This newsgroup, commonly called clpmisc, is a technical newsgroup
intended to be used for discussion of Perl related issues (except job
postings), whether it be comments or questions.
As you would expect, clpmisc discussions are usually very technical in
nature and there are conventions for conduct in technical newsgroups
going somewhat beyond those in non-technical newsgroups.
The article at:
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
describes how to get answers from technical people in general.
This article describes things that you should, and should not, do to
increase your chances of getting an answer to your Perl question. It is
available in POD, HTML and plain text formats at:
http://www.rehabitation.com/clpmisc.shtml
For more information about netiquette in general, see the "Netiquette
Guidelines" at:
http://andrew2.andrew.cmu.edu/rfc/rfc1855.html
A note to newsgroup "regulars":
Do not use these guidelines as a "license to flame" or other
meanness. It is possible that a poster is unaware of things
discussed here. Give them the benefit of the doubt, and just
help them learn how to post, rather than assume that they do
know and are being the "bad kind" of Lazy.
A note about technical terms used here:
In this document, we use words like "must" and "should" as
they're used in technical conversation (such as you will
encounter in this newsgroup). When we say that you *must* do
something, we mean that if you don't do that something, then
it's unlikely that you will benefit much from this group.
We're not bossing you around; we're making the point without
lots of words.
Do *NOT* send email to the maintainer of these guidelines. It will be
discarded unread. The guidelines belong to the newsgroup so all
discussion should appear in the newsgroup. I am just the secretary that
writes down the consensus of the group.
Before posting to comp.lang.perl.misc
Must
This section describes things that you *must* do before posting to
clpmisc, in order to maximize your chances of getting meaningful replies
to your inquiry and to avoid getting flamed for being lazy and trying to
have others do your work.
The perl distribution includes documentation that is copied to your hard
drive when you install perl. Also installed is a program for looking
things up in that (and other) documentation named 'perldoc'.
You should either find out where the docs got installed on your system,
or use perldoc to find them for you. Type "perldoc perldoc" to learn how
to use perldoc itself. Type "perldoc perl" to start reading Perl's
standard documentation.
Check the Perl Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Checking the FAQ before posting is required in Big 8 newsgroups in
general, there is nothing clpmisc-specific about this requirement.
You are expected to do this in nearly all newsgroups.
You can use the "-q" switch with perldoc to do a word search of the
questions in the Perl FAQs.
Check the other standard Perl docs (*.pod)
The perl distribution comes with much more documentation than is
available for most other newsgroups, so in clpmisc you should also
see if you can find an answer in the other (non-FAQ) standard docs
before posting.
It is *not* required, or even expected, that you actually *read* all of
Perl's standard docs, only that you spend a few minutes searching them
before posting.
Try doing a word-search in the standard docs for some words/phrases
taken from your problem statement or from your very carefully worded
"Subject:" header.
Really Really Should
This section describes things that you *really should* do before posting
to clpmisc.
Lurk for a while before posting
This is very important and expected in all newsgroups. Lurking means
to monitor a newsgroup for a period to become familiar with local
customs. Each newsgroup has specific customs and rituals. Knowing
these before you participate will help avoid embarrassing social
situations. Consider yourself to be a foreigner at first!
Search a Usenet archive
There are tens of thousands of Perl programmers. It is very likely
that your question has already been asked (and answered). See if you
can find where it has already been answered.
One such searchable archive is:
http://groups.google.com/advanced_group_search
If You Like
This section describes things that you *can* do before posting to
clpmisc.
Check Other Resources
You may want to check in books or on web sites to see if you can
find the answer to your question.
But you need to consider the source of such information: there are a
lot of very poor Perl books and web sites, and several good ones
too, of course.
Posting to comp.lang.perl.misc
There can be 200 messages in clpmisc in a single day. Nobody is going to
read every article. They must decide somehow which articles they are
going to read, and which they will skip.
Your post is in competition with 199 other posts. You need to "win"
before a person who can help you will even read your question.
These sections describe how you can help keep your article from being
one of the "skipped" ones.
Is there a better place to ask your question?
Question should be about Perl, not about the application area
It can be difficult to separate out where your problem really is,
but you should make a conscious effort to post to the most
applicable newsgroup. That is, after all, where you are the most
likely to find the people who know how to answer your question.
Being able to "partition" a problem is an essential skill for
effectively troubleshooting programming problems. If you don't get
that right, you end up looking for answers in the wrong places.
It should be understood that you may not know that the root of your
problem is not Perl-related (the two most frequent ones are CGI and
Operating System related), so off-topic postings will happen from
time to time. Be gracious when someone helps you find a better place
to ask your question by pointing you to a more applicable newsgroup.
How to participate (post) in the clpmisc community
Carefully choose the contents of your Subject header
You have 40 precious characters of Subject to win out and be one of
the posts that gets read. Don't waste them. Take care while
composing them, they are the key that opens the door to getting an
answer.
Spend them indicating what aspect of Perl others will find if they
should decide to read your article.
Do not spend them indicating "experience level" (guru, newbie...).
Do not spend them pleading (please read, urgent, help!...).
Do not spend them on non-Subjects (Perl question, one-word
Subject...)
For more information on choosing a Subject see "Choosing Good
Subject Lines":
http://www.cpan.org/authors/id/D/DM/DMR/subjects.post
Part of the beauty of newsgroup dynamics, is that you can contribute
to the community with your very first post! If your choice of
Subject leads a fellow Perler to find the thread you are starting,
then even asking a question helps us all.
Use an effective followup style
When composing a followup, quote only enough text to establish the
context for the comments that you will add. Always indicate who
wrote the quoted material. Never quote an entire article. Never
quote a .signature (unless that is what you are commenting on).
Intersperse your comments *following* each section of quoted text to
which they relate. Unappreciated followup styles are referred to as
"top-posting", "Jeopardy" (because the answer comes before the
question), or "TOFU" (Text Over, Fullquote Under).
Reversing the chronology of the dialog makes it much harder to
understand (some folks won't even read it if written in that style).
For more information on quoting style, see:
http://web.presby.edu/~nnqadmin/nnq/nquote.html
Speak Perl rather than English, when possible
Perl is much more precise than natural language. Saying it in Perl
instead will avoid misunderstanding your question or problem.
Do not say: I have variable with "foo\tbar" in it.
Instead say: I have $var = "foo\tbar", or I have $var = 'foo\tbar',
or I have $var = <DATA> (and show the data line).
Ask perl to help you
You can ask perl itself to help you find common programming mistakes
by doing two things: enable warnings (perldoc warnings) and enable
"strict"ures (perldoc strict).
You should not bother the hundreds/thousands of readers of the
newsgroup without first seeing if a machine can help you find your
problem. It is demeaning to be asked to do the work of a machine. It
will annoy the readers of your article.
You can look up any of the messages that perl might issue to find
out what the message means and how to resolve the potential mistake
(perldoc perldiag). If you would like perl to look them up for you,
you can put "use diagnostics;" near the top of your program.
Do not re-type Perl code
Use copy/paste or your editor's "import" function rather than
attempting to type in your code. If you make a typo you will get
followups about your typos instead of about the question you are
trying to get answered.
Provide enough information
If you do the things in this item, you will have an Extremely Good
chance of getting people to try and help you with your problem!
These features are a really big bonus toward your question winning
out over all of the other posts that you are competing with.
First make a short (less than 20-30 lines) and *complete* program
that illustrates the problem you are having. People should be able
to run your program by copy/pasting the code from your article. (You
will find that doing this step very often reveals your problem
directly. Leading to an answer much more quickly and reliably than
posting to Usenet.)
Describe *precisely* the input to your program. Also provide example
input data for your program. If you need to show file input, use the
__DATA__ token (perldata.pod) to provide the file contents inside of
your Perl program.
Show the output (including the verbatim text of any messages) of
your program.
Describe how you want the output to be different from what you are
getting.
If you have no idea at all of how to code up your situation, be sure
to at least describe the 2 things that you *do* know: input and
desired output.
Do not provide too much information
Do not just post your entire program for debugging. Most especially
do not post someone *else's* entire program.
Do not post binaries, HTML, or MIME
clpmisc is a text only newsgroup. If you have images or binaries
that explain your question, put them in a publically accessible
place (like a Web server) and provide a pointer to that location. If
you include code, cut and paste it directly in the message body.
Don't attach anything to the message. Don't post vcards or HTML.
Many people (and even some Usenet servers) will automatically filter
out such messages. Many people will not be able to easily read your
post. Plain text is something everyone can read.
Social faux pas to avoid
The first two below are symptoms of lots of FAQ asking here in clpmisc.
It happens so often that folks will assume that it is happening yet
again. If you have looked but not found, or found but didn't understand
the docs, say so in your article.
Asking a Frequently Asked Question
It should be understood that you may have missed the applicable FAQ
when you checked, which is not a big deal. But if the Frequently
Asked Question is worded similar to your question, folks will assume
that you did not look at all. Don't become indignant at pointers to
the FAQ, particularly if it solves your problem.
Asking a question easily answered by a cursory doc search
If folks think you have not even tried the obvious step of reading
the docs applicable to your problem, they are likely to become
annoyed.
If you are flamed for not checking when you *did* check, then just
shrug it off (and take the answer that you got).
Asking for emailed answers
Emailed answers benefit one person. Posted answers benefit the
entire community. If folks can take the time to answer your
question, then you can take the time to go get the answer in the
same place where you asked the question.
It is OK to ask for a *copy* of the answer to be emailed, but many
will ignore such requests anyway. If you munge your address, you
should never expect (or ask) to get email in response to a Usenet
post.
Ask the question here, get the answer here (maybe).
Beware of saying "doesn't work"
This is a "red flag" phrase. If you find yourself writing that,
pause and see if you can't describe what is not working without
saying "doesn't work". That is, describe how it is not what you
want.
Sending a "stealth" Cc copy
A "stealth Cc" is when you both email and post a reply without
indicating *in the body* that you are doing so.
Be extra cautious when you get upset
Count to ten before composing a followup when you are upset
This is recommended in all Usenet newsgroups. Here in clpmisc, most
flaming sub-threads are not about any feature of Perl at all! They
are most often for what was seen as a breach of netiquette. If you
have lurked for a bit, then you will know what is expected and won't
make such posts in the first place.
But if you get upset, wait a while before writing your followup. I
recommend waiting at least 30 minutes.
Count to ten after composing and before posting when you are upset
After you have written your followup, wait *another* 30 minutes
before committing yourself by posting it. You cannot take it back
once it has been said.
AUTHOR
Tad McClellan and many others on the comp.lang.perl.misc newsgroup.
--
Tad McClellan
email: perl -le "print scalar reverse qq/moc.noitatibaher\100cmdat/"
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 13 Jun 2008 00:11:59 -0700 (PDT)
From: coffeevictim <colin@yoursupport.biz>
Subject: Re: Reading a line from a CVS file into an array.
Message-Id: <80a2ec93-766a-49e1-88bb-c285393a4ab7@l64g2000hse.googlegroups.com>
On Jun 12, 10:40=A0pm, xhos...@gmail.com wrote:
> coffeevictim <co...@yoursupport.biz> wrote:
> > On 12 Jun, 19:52, J=3DFCrgen Exner <jurge...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> > > coffeevictim <co...@yoursupport.biz> wrote:
> > > >The problem is that some of the text fields also contain commas so I
> > > >am a bit stumped as to how to construct a command that will accuratel=
y
> > > >split the line at the actual separators.
>
> > > I don't know the file format CVS, but if you are talking about CSV the=
n
> > > is there anything wrong with Text::CSV?
>
> > > jue
>
> > CSV. My mistake.
>
> > Since I wish to execute the script at the Windows command line and
> > make it as portable as possible, I was hoping to to use just perl.exe.
>
> You could use Text::Balanced, which I think is a core module and so should=
> be available wherever Perl is. =A0If you insist on doing it without module=
s,
> and are using Excel style (comma are protected by wrapping in double quote=
s
> and literal double quotes are escaped by doubling them) then maybe this:
>
> my @x =3D split /,(?=3D[^\"]*(?:\"[^\"]*\"[^\"]*)*$)/ ;
>
> It just does the splitting, it doesn't deprotect or deescape. =A0And embed=
ded
> newlines are not tolerated.
>
> Xho
>
> --
> --------------------http://NewsReader.Com/--------------------
> The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the
> payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked
> advertisement in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate=
> this fact.- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -
Thanks Chad and Xho for your advice but I've gone ahead and done it
the proper way with Text::CSV_XS. It means I now need to install
activeperl on the end user machine but it's a small price to pay since
the number of lines in the csv file is such that something is bound to
go wrong otherwise.
Thanks to those who sugested Text::CSV in the first place, you are
quite right :)
coffeevictim
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2008 21:35:58 -0700
From: fishfry <BLOCKSPAMfishfry@your-mailbox.com>
Subject: Unwanted output using croak with eval
Message-Id: <BLOCKSPAMfishfry-CB6B34.21355712062008@comcast.dca.giganews.com>
Consider this program:
#!/usr/local/bin/perl -w
use strict;
use Carp;
foo();
print "done\n";
sub foo {
eval {
bar();
};
print 'In foo(), following eval ... $@', " = $@\n";
}
sub bar {
croak "croaking in bar()\n";
}
Clearly the intent is that foo() wants to handle the case of bar()
failing. Yet, this program produces the output:
In foo(), following eval ... $@ = croaking in bar()
at ./err2 line 17
main::bar() called at ./err2 line 11
eval {...} called at ./err2 line 10
main::foo() called at ./err2 line 6
done
Is there a way to suppress the output of croak? Clearly this is a
situation where I want to handle the failure myself, and not show this
croak output to the enduser.
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2008 22:55:50 -0700 (PDT)
From: rthangam <ramesh.thangamani@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Unwanted output using croak with eval
Message-Id: <c1700a2a-2d07-4f6f-8294-4cba02cd843f@c65g2000hsa.googlegroups.com>
On Jun 13, 9:35 am, fishfry <BLOCKSPAMfish...@your-mailbox.com> wrote:
> Consider this program:
>
> #!/usr/local/bin/perl -w
> use strict;
>
> use Carp;
>
> foo();
> print "done\n";
>
> sub foo {
> eval {
> bar();
> };
> print 'In foo(), following eval ... $@', " = $@\n";
>
> }
>
> sub bar {
> croak "croaking in bar()\n";
>
> }
>
> Clearly the intent is that foo() wants to handle the case of bar()
> failing. Yet, this program produces the output:
>
> In foo(), following eval ... $@ = croaking in bar()
> at ./err2 line 17
> main::bar() called at ./err2 line 11
> eval {...} called at ./err2 line 10
> main::foo() called at ./err2 line 6
>
> done
>
> Is there a way to suppress the output of croak? Clearly this is a
> situation where I want to handle the failure myself, and not show this
> croak output to the enduser.
Since you are using eval when there is a call to bar() you know there
is some error when $@ is set. If you want to handle yourself then you
can die or do what ever if $@ is set. Does this answer your question
or you are expecting something else ?
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 13 Jun 2008 09:21:37 +0100
From: bugbear <bugbear@trim_papermule.co.uk_trim>
Subject: Re: Unwanted output using croak with eval
Message-Id: <pKidnQ_ueeCPs8_VRVnyhgA@posted.plusnet>
fishfry wrote:
> Consider this program:
>
> #!/usr/local/bin/perl -w
> use strict;
>
> use Carp;
>
> foo();
> print "done\n";
>
> sub foo {
> eval {
> bar();
> };
> print 'In foo(), following eval ... $@', " = $@\n";
> }
>
> sub bar {
> croak "croaking in bar()\n";
> }
>
>
> Clearly the intent is that foo() wants to handle the case of bar()
> failing. Yet, this program produces the output:
>
> In foo(), following eval ... $@ = croaking in bar()
> at ./err2 line 17
> main::bar() called at ./err2 line 11
> eval {...} called at ./err2 line 10
> main::foo() called at ./err2 line 6
>
> done
>
> Is there a way to suppress the output of croak? Clearly this is a
> situation where I want to handle the failure myself, and not show this
> croak output to the enduser.
What output do you get if you DON'T have the print in foo()?
BugBear
------------------------------
Date: 6 Apr 2001 21:33:47 GMT (Last modified)
From: Perl-Users-Request@ruby.oce.orst.edu (Perl-Users-Digest Admin)
Subject: Digest Administrivia (Last modified: 6 Apr 01)
Message-Id: <null>
Administrivia:
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------------------------------
End of Perl-Users Digest V11 Issue 1637
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